News

February 7, 2019

AFDCS elects four to its board

The new directors of the American First Day Cover Society will help see the organization through 2021, when it will join the American Philatelic Society and Royal Philatelic Society of Canada in hosting its annual convention with StampShow 2021.

Members of the American First Day Cover Society (AFDCS), the largest not-for-profit organization in the world specifically serving first-day cover collectors, have elected four people to its board of directors.

The vote totals for the election of three-year terms, which began Jan. 1, were:

Cynthia Scott with 123 votes;

Ralph Nafziger with 114 votes;

Doug Kelsey with 110 votes;

Lorraine Bailey with 101 votes;

Jim Tatum Jr. with 69 votes; and

James Hogg with 51 votes.

Scott, Nafziger, Kelsey and Bailey were elected to the board. Nafziger, Kelsey and Bailey are incumbents while Scott has served on the board before.

Voters submitted 155 ballots, of which 152 were valid.

BOARD ROLES

Scott is a past show chair of Americover, the society’s annual convention. Nafziger is currently recording secretary while Kelsey is executive secretary. Bailey is a past AFDCS sales chair.

Board chairman Mark Goodson thanked retiring Director Allison Cusick for his many years of service on the AFDCS board. Cusick will now chair the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) committee, a post which may only be held by a past DSA winner.

Four seats on the AFDCS board of directors are elected each year for three-year terms, beginning Jan. 1. In addition to the 12 elected directors, the president, the editor of the official journal First Days and the general counsel serve on the board ex officio if not elected to the board in their own right.

The current board, plus directors who will be seated on Jan. 1, will now vote for the elected officers (president, executive vice president, first vice president, recording secretary, treasurer) and a chairman of the board to serve one-year terms.

AFDCS directors are not compensated nor reimbursed for their travel expenses. The board meets annually at Americover, which in 2019 will be held July 26-28 in Saint Louis, and conducts business via other means throughout the year.

FUTURE PLANS

Next year, the APS will further expand its partnership model by including the AFDCS, which – along with the American Topical Association – will hold its national convention in conjunction with that year’s StampShow.

Also at StampShow 2020, which will be held in Hartford, Ct., The RPSC is slated to take a table on the bourse.

This year, The RPSC will also send representatives and exhibits to StampShow, which will be held Aug. 1-4 in Omaha, Neb.

In turn, the APS will send Scott Tiffney, its director of information services, to this June’s Royal Convention, where he will man a table on the bourse and lead a seminar on the American Philatelic Research Library, which he also serves as library director.

‘WITH AN INTERNATIONAL TWIST’

These plans will “build to an eventual logical conclusion” at StampShow 2021 according to APS Executive Director Scott English. That year’s show will be held in Chicago, one of the largest cities in the U.S. and only 450 kilometres from Windsor, Ont.

“It’ll be our first national show with an international twist, and we wanted to include Canada because we have a wealth of members from there,” said English, who added the APS has nearly 1,300 Canadian members.

“That’s a sizeable population and a lot of commitment from Canada for the APS. We continue to open the road for every different affiliate and collecting specialty to have an outlet at our show, and this is reflective of that,” he said, also referencing the APS’ partnership with the British North America Philatelic Society, which recently announced a $1,000 scholarship for young philatelists to attend the annual Summer Seminar.

“It’s really important to bolster this work with The RPSC and APS and strengthen that network to the degree we can. We’ve been very impressed with what The RPSC has done in growth and outreach, and we want to be a part of that.”

As the midpoint between New York 2016 and Boston 2026, StampShow 2021 will halve the “substantial” decade-long gap in international shows in North America.

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